Shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) rose by over 6.30 per cent to a 52-week high after the company reported a 49 per cent surge in net profit for the quarter ending December. The stock has surged over 11 per cent in the last four trading sessions.
Financial performance
The public sector life insurance company reported a net profit of Rs 6,334 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, as per an exchange filing.
LIC's net premium income rose to Rs 1.17 lakh crore from Rs 1.11 lakh crore in the same quarter a year ago. Additionally, the company's total income surged to Rs 2.12 lakh crore for the December quarter, up from Rs 1.96 lakh crore in the year-ago period.
“Our consistent and focused approach towards diversifying and changing our product mix is now yielding results at a faster pace. The same is evident in the rise in the share of non-par business on an APE basis to 14.04 per cent of our total individual business for the first nine months of FY 2024. The fact that this is also accompanied by a 200-bps increase in the VNB margin levels to 16.60 per cent is an indicator that our strategic interventions are delivering in the manner that we envisaged," said Siddhartha Mohanty, Chairperson, LIC.
"We want to make sure that every action of ours is valuable to all stakeholders. We will relentlessly pursue our targeted product and channel mix with the support of all our employees, agency force, and channel partners. We are committed to developing new products designed to meet the evolving needs of our customers. With our digital transformation project underway, we are confident of making significant improvements in our business processes," he said.
Soaring market value
The company's market capitalisation rose to over Rs 7 lakh crore, positioning it as the fifth most valued company.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted LIC's achievement in the Rajya Sabha, noting that despite rumours spread by the opposition, LIC's shares are now trading at record-high prices.
Currently, Reliance Industries leads as the country's most valued firm with a market valuation of Rs 19.64 lakh crore, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Infosys, and LIC.
Earlier last month, LIC outpaced the State Bank of India (SBI) to become the country's most-valued PSU firm by market valuation. The insurer, which was listed in May 2022, witnessed a strong market response during its Initial Public Offering (IPO), wherein the government divested over 22.13 crore shares, equivalent to a 3.50 per cent stake. Currently, the government holds a 96.50 per cent stake in LIC. The stock has shown significant growth, reaching the Rs 1,000 mark for the first time and registering a nearly 33 per cent increase so far this year.
As of 9:46 am, shares of LIC were trading at Rs 1,130.70, 2.30 per cent higher than the previous close of Rs 1,105.25 on the NSE.
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